High Rise
by hashtagxheel
Summary: Why they're here isn't important, but the fact that they're here means everything. They live 20  stories above the busy streets of Chicago, and previously uncomplicated existences are about to become intertwined. WWE/TNA multi-couples. Review please !:D
1. This Morning

Chapter One: This Morning

Heads turned as four of the most physically imposing men in Chicago entered the lobby of Rockwell Terrace. No, they weren't famous, but they were tall, muscular, handsome, _and_ moving into the building.

The tallest of the foursome balanced a cardboard box under each arm and used his knee to hit the 'up' button of one of the elevators. He placed one box on the floor and ran a hand over his short, sandy-colored hair. "I guess you guys could put the boxes down and rest a second; it looks like the elevator has to come all the way from the twenty-fifth floor." Matt Morgan's raspy, gravelly voice sounded almost exasperated.

"What's that? You said something about resting? You don't have to tell me twice," said the second-tallest man with a smile. He let his two boxes hit the tiled lobby floor with a _thud_. Tommy Mercer used the back of his hand to wipe the light smear of sweat from his forehead, the product of a typical hot, humid late spring day in Chicago.

John Cena laughed and sat atop the box he'd been carrying. He scrunched his nearly-blonde brows and a frown crossed his chiseled features. "Hopefully it doesn't take _too_ long to get down here. I want to get this whole moving in business finished ASAP before it really gets hot out there." He jerked a thumb in the direction of the revolving lobby door, through which you could see the bustling streets of downtown.

Randy Orton nodded. "I'm with you on that one. It's what, ten-thirty in the morning and it feels like a goddamn sauna outside! I miss L.A. weather; if it's ninety degrees, it's exactly that—ninety degrees. Here, 'ninety degrees' translates to 'ninety degrees plus one-hundred-twelve percent humidity'."

"I thought you guys were excited about moving in," said Matt.

"We are," replied John, "the weather is just kicking our ass, that's all."

Tommy laughed. "Well _I'm_ gonna be kicking your ass if you keep complaining, Mr. Cena."

John smiled as the elevator reached the lobby. "Try me, Tommy."

Matt rolled his eyes as the four of them entered the elevator. "Could you two at least _try_ to save the bullshitting until after we get all our shit hauled upstairs?"

"We _are_ trying," Tommy teased, "and failing miserably."

Frankie Kazarian yawned sleepily and sat up in bed. Looking over to his right, he saw that his girlfriend, Traci Brooks, wasn't there. And why would she be? It was ten-thirty in the morning and Traci was the epitome of a morning person; she'd probably been up for hours already.

Frankie dragged himself into the living room, where Traci was watching TV. The raven-haired beauty looked over her shoulder and smiled at Frankie. "There you are."

Frankie smiled and leaned over the back of the couch to kiss Traci. "Yep, here I am. How long have you been up?"

Traci shrugged. "I don't know. Since seven, seven-thirty maybe. I was waiting for you to wake up to tell you we got invited somewhere."

"We did?" Frankie called from the kitchen. He pulled the carton of Tropicana from the refrigerator and drank straight from it. "Where?"

"To lunch," Traci called back, "Jo Mo, Mel, Ted, and Maryse thought it would be a nice day to go. Are you up for it?"

"Of course!" said Frankie, placing the orange juice back on the shelf and shutting the refrigerator. "I can't believe you'd think I wouldn't wanna go." He made his way back into the living room and plopped beside Traci on the couch.

Traci laughed. "I didn't think you wouldn't wanna go. I just didn't know if you'd be awake by lunch time."

"You and I both," Frankie replied as the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it," said Traci. She hopped over the back of the couch and walked toward the door. As she peeked through the peephole, a grin crossed her face. "I think it's for you," she said to Frankie.

"Who is it?" Frankie asked.

"Alex and Chris," Traci laughed as she opened the door.

Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin were roommates and lived down the hall from Frankie and Traci. They were the types who threw parties every other weekend and played Xbox for hours on end. Despite basically still being twelve years old at heart, they were good guys and two of the couple's best friends.

"Frankie, Frankie, Frankie!" Alex said frantically. He threw himself on the couch beside Frankie.

Frankie was confused. "What's going on, guys?"

"Have you met the girls who moved in across from you a few days ago?" Chris asked.

Frankie searched his memory. "No." Truth was, he hadn't even noticed that anyone had moved in across the hall.

"Trace, have you talked to those girls across the hall yet?" Alex asked.

Traci nodded as she sat down on the loveseat across from them. "Oh, you mean Lauren and Jamie? Yeah, I was over there yesterday. Why?"

Chris smiled and leaned back into the couch. "What do you mean 'why'? They're smokin' hot, that's why!"

"Oh, here we go," Traci groaned.

"Now that we know their names, we can invite them to the party on Friday," said Alex.

Frankie raised an eyebrow. "You guys are having a party on Friday? Since when?"

Chris grinned. "Since about sixty seconds ago."

_**A/N: I began this story on an impulse, but I'm hoping you all enjoy it just the same. I'm actually pretty excited about it. A lot of the characters will be addressed by their real names, so if you're not sure who's who, just ask(: Thanks for reading and review please!**_


	2. Strangers

Chapter Two: Strangers 

It hadn't taken AJ Styles long to notice her, as striking as she was. He had blocked out the entire outside world just looking at her, and it seemed she'd drowned out the world, too, with her earphones in and her gaze, not looking anywhere in particular. She was beautiful and harder to miss than the average girl with that bright red hair of hers, and AJ got a little excited when he saw the boxes she was carrying. That meant that the gorgeous mystery redhead was moving in.

Christy Hemme could feel her arms starting to burn. The boxes she was carrying up to her new apartment were heavy as all hell and, just her luck, she'd chosen the elevator that had the longest journey down to the lobby. The native Californian tried to change the position of the boxes and wedge each one between her arm and her hip. That plan succeeded for about a millisecond before one box slipped from beneath her arm and tumbled to the lobby floor, spilling its contents everywhere. Christy groaned and stooped to pick up the box. She was about halfway through refilling it when she grabbed a hand instead of a book.

The guy who the hand belonged to smiled. "You looked like you could use some help," he said.

Christy hadn't even initially noticed that this man had come to help her, but she was okay with it now. He was cute, really cute actually. His eyes were blue, his hair was brown, and he had a Southern accent to die for. Christy smiled as she and the stranger placed everything back into the box and stood back up.

"Thanks for the help…" Christy began, waiting for him to fill in his name.

"AJ," he replied, holding his hand out.

Christy shook his hand. "Nice to meet you, AJ. I'm Christy."

"The pleasure's all mine," replied AJ. He gestured to Christy's boxes, "You're moving in, I'm guessing?"

Christy nodded. "All the way from California. I've got a murderous trek up to the twenty-seventh floor. Do you live here?"

"As a matter of fact, I do live here, on the twenty-third floor," said AJ, "would you like some help carrying your boxes upstairs?"

Christy smiled. "Actually, I'd _love_ some help."

In a relationship, it's usually expected that the woman takes longer than the woman. There is, however, and exception to every rule. Take Melina Perez and her fiancee, John Morrison, for instance.

Melina was in the living room watching recorded episodes of _Basketball Wives_. She was just getting to the part of this episode where Tami was beating the shit out of Meeka when she checked her phone. She groaned. Chances were, John _still_ wasn't ready to go to lunch, but she had to go and check anyway.

John was in the bathroom mirror when Melina's reflection appeared beside his. He smiled. "Five more minutes, babe, I promise."

Melina raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Five more minutes, huh? That's what you said ten minutes ago. Ted and Ryse are gonna be here any minute, and they've probably got Frankie and Traci with them too, and you're _still_ not ready!"

John laughed and wrapped Melina in a tight hug. "Calm down, will you? I bet money Ted and Ryse won't be here on time anyway; you know Ryse notorious for doing a total hair-makeup-clothes overhaul whenever she goes out."

"What about Traci and Frankie?" Melina asked, "I'm sure they'll…" She turned in the direction of the front door as the ringing doorbell cut her off. Melina eyed John. "I bet that's them." Before Melina opened the door, she could hear Ted DiBiase and his girlfriend, Maryse Ouellet, arguing. The pair didn't necessarily argue all the time, but when they did, it was practically World War III. Melina could only imagine what had set if off this time.

"_Je ne peux pas vous croire!_" Maryse said angrily, "You're going to help AJ scam on this poor girl that's been in the building five seconds? _Incroyable!_"

Ted's tone of voice was considerably calmer. "Ryse, would you calm down? I'm not helping AJ scam on anyone. Is it so hard to believe that AJ might truly be interested in someone for something other than sex?"

"Yes!" Maryse said indignantly, "I'm AJ's friend, Teddy, but I refuse to sit back and…"

"Hi, guys," Melina said as she opened the door, interrupting the argument.

Maryse smiled. "Hello, Mel. Where's John?"

Melina stepped aside so that Maryse and Ted could come inside. "Still getting dressed, of course. What was that blow-up outside about?"

Maryse shot Ted a look. "Explain.

Ted sighed. "Alright, so a new girl moved in today. Christy I think her name was. AJ ran into her in the lobby…"

Melina held up a hand. "Stop right there. AJ plus new girl equals recipe for disaster. If AJ wants to love 'em and leave 'em in some other part of Chicago, be my guest. But if he keeps talking to this girl, he's gonna hook up with her, dump her, and everyone in the goddamn building—especially us, as AJ's friends—are gonna be caught up in the madness that follows."

Ted ran a hand over his hair. "I know that. But AJ is my friend and I think he's changed, so I'm gonna try to help him and Christy see if, you know, they've got any chemistry."

Maryse folded her arms across her chest. "You know the funny thing about chemistry?" she said, "If you mix the wrong chemicals together, they _explode_."

Mike Mizanin and his cousin slash best friend slash roommate, Alex Riley, had spent their day up to this point roaming all over Rockwell Terrace. It was their first day in the building and they thought getting familiar with their surroundings was in order.

Alex jammed one hand into his jeans pocket and used the other to push the 'down' button on the elevator. He and Mike were on their way from their apartment on the twenty-sixth floor to check out one of the gyms in the building, the closest one to them being on the eighteenth floor.

"I'm starving," Alex remarked, "we should get some lunch after we swing by the gym."

Mike laid a hand on his flat stomach. "I'm hungry, too. We'll definitely be getting something to eat soon. What did you want?"

Alex tapped his chin thoughtfully for a moment. "I'm thinking something totally inexpensive, yet totally unhealthy all at once. I'm thinking something we've got no business eating…"

"McDonald's!" said Mike as the elevator doors opened, "You're such a fat-ass."

"I see you still haven't said no yet," Alex shot as the two of them rounded the corner to the gym. The gym was behind Plexiglas and despite the fact that it was an odd time of the day to be working out, people were inside. There were people lifting weights, people laying into punching bags…but two in particular caught Mike and Alex's eyes.

It was a pretty duo to the far right, running on treadmills side-by-side and chatting it up.

Alex was almost too enthralled with the blonde to speak. "Mike?"

Mike was equally entranced by the redhead. "Yeah?"

"I don't think I'm hungry anymore," said Alex.

"You know what?" Mike said, "I'm thinking we go upstairs, change, take our asses into that gym, and introduce ourselves to those girls."

Alex smiled. "I'm thinking that I agree with you."

_**A/N: So there's the second chapter! How was it? Feedback would be awesome. And thanks to truebeliever831 for reviewing the first chapter and commenting on the hotness of the guy characters(: Believe me, there's more freakishly attractive man candy where that came from;) Review please!**_


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